Dispatch has revealed the truth behind FIFTY FIFTY, Ahn Sung Il (also known as SIAHN), The Givers, and the timeline of events leading up to the lawsuit.
Following a series of investigations, Dispatch has uncovered what they believe is the truth behind the relationship between FIFTY FIFTY, Ahn Sung Il, and ATTRAKT.
FIFTY FIFTY filed a lawsuit for suspending their contract with ATTRAKT in June, citing two reasons: they didn’t get paid and did not correctly manage the members’ health. However, what Dispatch was able to discover showed something very different. There was little evidence that the members’ health concerns were ignored, and the members are still in debt, even with the success of “Cupid.”
Who planned FIFTY FIFTY?
First of all, the three key players in the creation of FIFTY FIFTY are Ahn Sung Il, Jeon Hong Joon, and KAMP.
Ahn Sung Il: The CEO and producer for The Givers. He is known to have produced singers J-Walk, Eun Ji Won’s solo career, Rumble Fish, and more. Currently, his agency is also the home to Son Seung Yeon.
Jeon Hong Joon: The CEO of Attrakt. He was born in 1964. He has managed artists including Cho Kwan Woo, Yang Soo Kyung, Bobby Kim, Yoon Mirae, and Ha Sungwoon.
KAMP: A performance production company based in the United States. They have hosted several K-Pop festivals. Ahn Sung Il worked as an employee here in 2019.
The relationship between the three began in 2019 during KAMP Singapore 2019. Jeon Hong Joon met with the CEO of KAMP, Ahn Sung Il, and another employee from KAMP. Jeon Hong Joon was able to see K-Pop’s power at this time, suggesting to the KAMP CEO that they should work together to create a global K-Pop group.
CEO Jeon Hong Joon proposed a project to produce a girl group. We decided to help with overseas marketing. Ahn Sung Il was a producer, so we sent him to ATTRAKT. At that point, though, KAMP was paying his salary.
— KAMP CEO
In November 2019, the trio launched the project ” FIFTY. ” Jeon Hong Joon, KAMP’s CEO, Ahn Sung Il, and two other KAMP staff, “B” and “L,” officially joined forces to begin production on their girl group.
Who made FIFTY FIFTY?
Jeon Hong Joon worked for a year, gathering trainees between December 2019 to December 2020. He started with 12 trainees in 2020, cut it to five in 2021, and finalized it to four in 2022. The company used its monthly evaluations to determine the debuting members.
KAMP helped with the selection process, participating in two monthly evaluations. They also helped plan the global strategy, search for foreign composers, and collect songs.
However, KAMP’s involvement in the project ended in 2021. There was a disagreement between Jeon Hong Joon and KAMP’s CEO over the global strategy. With their differing opinions, KAMP ended up pulling out of the project. Jeon Hong Joon ended up finding a US-based agent to replace KAMP. That person was Ahn Sung Il.
In May 2021, Ahn Sung Il resigned from KAMP. The two other KAMP employees, “B” and “L,” who were part of the project, also resigned. The three formed The Givers together.
From our point of view, we needed a team to serve as the base camp in the US. Ahn Sung Il said he was the right person to lead that. Considering that there would be continuity as he was part of KAMP, there was no reason to refuse his offer. I signed an outsourcing contract with Ahn Sung Il.
— Jeon Hong Joon
Who raised FIFTY FIFTY?
Jeon Hong Joon and Ahn Sung Il worked together. Jeon Hong Joon went looking for investments and money as he thought that was the producer’s job. Ahn Sung Il was in charge of training.
However, the company’s bank account was quickly emptied. The average cost for producing a girl group is ₩2.00 billion KRW (about $1.53 million USD) annually. The prepayments from investors and distributors didn’t cover this amount.
I didn’t want to discourage my artists. I had their dorm in Gangnam. It was a three bedroom, two bathroom place. The monthly rent was ₩3.30 million KRW (about $2,530 USD). I also got them lessons and training for each aspect…
— Jeon Hong Joon
In reality, FIFTY FIFTY received lessons in vocals, music theory, rap, dance, English, personal training, and acting. The company spent between ₩20.0 million KRW (about $15,300 USD) and ₩30.0 million KRW (about $23,000 USD) on lesson fees alone each month.
Then there was the music video, where ₩1.00 billion KRW (about $766,000 USD) was invested in producing their music videos. In December 2021, they made four cover song music videos and sent them to ICM, Song Music, and BGM.
In 2022, music videos for all four songs from their first album were produced at a total production cost of over ₩500 million KRW (about $383,000 USD). An additional ₩250 million KRW (about $192,000 USD) was spent on the music video for “Cupid.”
Ahn Sung Il led the process for the music video production. He even sold his foreign car and expensive watch to help raise funds for FIFTY FIFTY’s music videos. After all of this, FIFTY FIFTY debuted in November 2022.
Who launched FIFTY FIFTY to stardom?
In April 2023, FIFTY FIFTY entered Billboard’s Hot 100 with “Cupid.” The song stayed on the Hot 100 for 14 weeks, setting a record for a K-Pop girl group.
It was the rise of small and mid-sized companies. At that time, producer SIAHN received a lot of attention. FIFTY FIFTY shared their gratitude during a press conference in Korea. Of course, the name SIAHN came from Ahn Sung Il’s initials. Ahn Sung Il told Dispatch the direction he went with “Cupid.”
The song had to be in the form of K-Pop. But it’s a bit difficult to call “Cupid” K-Pop exactly… I wanted to ensure that regular listeners wouldn’t know if the song was K-Pop.
— Ahn Sung Il
Ahn Sung Il’s strategy worked. At the same time, “easy listening” emerged as a trend on social media. TikTok also played a massive role in the rise of the song, thanks to the sped-up version of the song becoming viral.
@tracytracks fifty fifty – cupid (twin english version sped up!) 🌷 it kinda sounds like one of those romantic disney songs 🎧 #fiftyfifty #cupid #sio #saena #aran #keena #nightcore
Ahn Sung Il successfully fulfilled his role as FIFTY FIFTY’s producer. He stated that he picked “Cupid” out of 2,000 possible songs that FIFTY FIFTY could have sung. In fact, “Cupid” was written by students from the Swedish School of Music (Adam Von Mentzer, Mac Felländer-Tsai, Louise Udin) while Ahn Sung Il arranged the song to fit his vision.
Has FIFTY FIFTY made money?
It’s true that Ahn Sung Il picked a gem out of a pile of 2,000 songs. However, Ahn Sung Il is the one who will end up benefiting the most from “Cupid”.
Dispatch was able to discover the exact breakdown of copyright holders for “Cupid”. The breakdown is as follows:
Ahn Sung Il (SIAHN) – 28.65%
Employee “B” (AHIN) – 4%
Song Ja Kyung (Keena’s real name) – 0.5%
The Givers – 66.85%
Notably, the Swedish students who initially produced the song are missing from the copyright distribution.
Dispatch also shared a short snippet of a conversation between Jeon Hong Joon and Ahn Sung Il from April 26, 2023.
Jeon Hong Joon: SIAHN, the copyright royalties will be huge. Congratulations.
Ahn Sung Il: I’m a minority shareholder, so there won’t be that much.
Jeon Hong Joon: Aigoo, next time make it higher. As the writer.
But in reality, Ahn Sung Il has a 95.5% stake in the copyrights after combining his own personal percentage and The Givers’ percentage.
And those Swedish students? Dispatch was able to confirm that Ahn Sung Il paid them $9,000 USD to buyout their rights to any copyrights in January 2023. Buyouts themselves are not illegal, but the situation does change if Ahn Sung Il receives the money instead of the company. Dispatch was able to obtain the invoice for the buyout, as shown below.
The funds weren’t looking good at the time. I asked Ahn Sung Il to send me how much the song cost first. Fortunately, we received some investment in March and paid it back to The Givers. It turns out, he took ownership of the copyright.
— Jeon Hong Joon
Who shook up FIFTY FIFTY?
Jeon Hong Joon’s mistake was putting his entire trust into The Givers. For example, management of the members was entrusted to employee “B” from The Givers. This included communication with the members as well as their parents.
On May 2, Aran underwent a surgery. A conversation between Jeon Hong Joon and Ahn Sung Il on the same day was shared by Dispatch.
Jeon Hong Joon: The exact disease?
Jeon Hong Joon: Did the surgery go well? Are you communicating well with the company staff and the parents? So that they won’t feel sad.
Jeon Hong Joon: This morning… I prayed! That it would go well.
Ahn Sung Il: Yes. The surgery is the fourth one on the [operating] schedule. “B” is in charge of the parents and is communicating well with them. I talked with Aran’s mother personally yesterday.
Ahn Sung Il: There is no need to say the exact disease. We will say that she had surgery because she felt uncomfortable somewhere.
Ahn Sung Il: And once the surgery is complete, we plan to upload a photo
On that day, Employee “B” also sent a message to Jeon Hong Joon.
CEO, they said Aran’s surgery will go well and she will be moved to a hospital room to recover. The surgery is currently going well, but I will continue to monitor as they said we have to watch her condition.
I’m going to give the other members a break while Aran recovers, is that okay? May 10 to May 28. The other members would need to return to the dorms by May 28.
— Employee “B”
Initially, Jeon Hong Joon countered by only giving them a week off, and employee “B” responded.
That’s too long. What will you do if there’s an accident? Give them a week off and then have them come back to the dorms. I’m concerned about an accident regarding their safety. Give them a week. After they go back to the dorms, give them more personal improvement time.
— Jeon Hong Joon
Ok. I was worried about the same thing, but there were requests from both the members and their parents. Also, Aran needs to rest for at least two weeks but she complained to Ahn Sung Il that she would only get one week of rest, out of worry.
— Employee “B”
In the end, Jeon Hong Joon told employee “B” to have them rest until May 25, giving them just over two weeks instead of one week.
On June 9, Ahn Sung Il and Jeon Hong Joon had a conversation regarding FIFTY FIFTY’s involvement with the Barbie movie.
Ahn Sung Il: It will definitely be good to do the Barbie movie. I’ll meet with them first to try to persuade them and I will communicate with Aran.
Jeon Hong Joon: It’s good for you, the group, and the company, but since it’s also a matter of dealing with a health issue, communicate well with both the parents and the members so that there are no misunderstandings~!!
Jeon Hong Joon: With such a good showing its frustrating that they cannot do anything these days~!
Ahn Sung Il: Ok. Aran listens well to my opinions anyway so I’ll check her condition first.
Ahn Sung Il: I’ll go to personally see her mother.
According to Jeon Hong Joon, he did not ignore the health of the members. He trusted employee “B” and left the management of their health to him.
“B” said he would take good care of them, so I trusted him and left it to him.
I think trusting him too much was the start of all this trouble.
When I said I wanted to go to the practice room to see them, he would say that the members are uncomfortable with me being there. I didn’t want to interrupt their practicing, so I just held it in and dealt with it.
Just think about how much I also wanted to see them.
— Jeon Hong Joon
Jeon Hong Joon shed tears while saying the above. However, he has no way to personally convey his thoughts and feelings to the FIFTY FIFTY members, as all communication to the members is through The Givers.
Dispatch also pointed out how Ahn Sung Il’s personal LinkedIn account falsely states that he is the CEO of ATTRAKT.
Jeon Hong Joon and ATTRAKT’s lawsuit against The Givers will begin on July 5.
